One of the more inventive seating options today is the modern bench. A simple and space-saving option for the contemporary home, modern benches inject a clean and practical esthetic to entryway, dining room, and living room. Whether or not a modern bench suits your style of décor and needs depends on several things, so before you consider adding a bench to your home, think about the following factors:

Where in my house would a modern bench work best?

Without a doubt a bench is a smart option for certain areas of the home, and an entryway or foyer is one of them. Whether or not your entryway is small or large, a modern storage bench offers both a seating and storage option convenient for putting on shoes, bundling up with winter gear, and storing seasonal sundries. Keeping an entryway clean, ordered and inviting is that much easier when a modern entryway bench is added to the furnishings in an entryway or foyer.

The dining room is another ideal location for modern benches. A modern dining bench, or even a pair of them, can be a handsome complement to a rectangular dining table, its low profile ideal especially for tight spaces. But depending on the particular design elements of a modern bench, it may work just as well in almost any room in the house.

Is a modern dining bench better than a set of dining chairs?

Whether a bench trumps chairs depends on whether or not your primary interest in a modern dining bench is practical or esthetic. As mentioned before, modern benches are well suited to small spaces where several chairs may take up too much space, and where chairs with backs may be visually distracting and crowd a space further. However, there are more nuanced reasons to opt for modern benches over chairs—namely, that their minimal profiles can be attractive visually and they can produce a more intimate dining setting than individual chairs do. So, if you’re aiming for that particular dining ambience, then a modern bench may lend itself more readily to intimate dinner gatherings than dining chairs.

Is a modern outdoor bench a good outdoor furniture investment?

Ideally, outdoor décor should be well integrated into the décor of your indoor spaces. And for the same reasons that modern benches are an attractive option indoors, a modern outdoor bench can add great practical and esthetic value to outdoor spaces. Depending on the size of your patio, deck or lawn, a modern storage bench or two may be able to satisfy all you outdoor seating needs. Whether arranged around an outdoor dining table or coffee table, or placed randomly or strategically, a modern bench can be as versatile outdoors as they are indoors. And with their streamlined profiles, benches can also turn an outdoor setting into as sophisticated and refined a space as any place inside your home.